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Derek Westbrook
Derek Westbrook is a former Special Forces Operations Detachment-Delta operative, a current TACITUS agent, and a main character in the TACITUS saga. He is one of TACITUS' more recent recruits. Biography Early life and start of his drifter years Not much is known about Derek's early life, except for the fact that he was born in the year 2000, his parents divorced in 2011, which was the start of a rather rebellious period of time spanning from his early teens to his mid to late twenties. As a young teen, he hung out with gangs and street criminals, learning various kinds of rebellious, particularly street fighting. Despite this, Derek went to a decent high school, where he graduated with a solid GPA. After graduating high school, his rebellious behavior really took off. He abruptly left home after hearing that his mother took custody of two of his sisters after a vicious custody battle following the divorce. This was when his time as a rebel really began. Age of Lawlessness From the time Derek graduated high school (he graduated high school early at the age of 17 at this point), to the age of 25, he began what he called his "Wandering Age", sometimes known as his "Years of Lawlessness", where he became a voluntary drifter and hardcore rebel, traversing the country with no place to call his own and working odd jobs here and there whenever he could. He also voluntarily got himself involved in investigating and redressing other people's grievances, in addition to living a rather immoral lifestyle. Derek would be visiting strip clubs, spending time at bars, hanging out with the wrong crowd, getting into fights, hooking up with multiple girls and young women, etc. These activites led to him being wanted for various different crimes he has committed during his escapades. At one point during his period of lawlessness, Derek got particularly wasted on alcohol and in a drunken stupor, he accidentally got one of his then-significant others pregnant. Derek sobered up eventually, but felt so much guilt from the incident that he later broke up with the girl, but not before suggesting to his equally-guilt ridden partner that she should give the child up for adoption. Unbeknownst to him, Derek's ex-girlfriend actually kept the child and soon raised a healthy daughter going by the name of Heather Hodges. Later during his Wandering Age, Derek was considered a "bounty hunter" of sorts, hunting down criminals and bringing them down on behalf of others. It was during this time period that Derek developed a notorious vigilante reputation that earned him a host of new friends and enemies. He ventually formed a vigilante gang known as The Renegades. Military career In 2016, Derek's wandering age abruptly ended when Derek was drafted into the military. He ended up in the US Army Rangers. Thanks to his athletic body build and his determination, Derek excelled during the Green Berets' training and eventually became one of the best soldiers in the organization. Due to the secretive nature of the Green Berets, his career details as a Green Beret member are classified. However, he is known to have partaken in hostage rescue missions and peacekeeping missions across the globe. As a TACITUS agent In early 2016, Derek joined TACITUS, and became one of their best counterterrorism agents, partaking in numerous counterterrorism ops across the globe. In 2017, after successfully dismantling a human trafficking ring, TACITUS director Hugh Collins gave him some time off to give him a chance to relax. During this time, he was abruptly reconnected to his long lost sibling, Corinne Westbrook, and decided to reunite with her. Later in his life, he came into contact with a campus ministry organization named Campus Crusade, which invited him to a Christian retreat called Fall Getaway. Becoming a Christian During his time at Fall Getaway, Derek was exposed to the Christian faith for the first time since his youth (having rejected the Christian faith numerous times on other occasions on the basis of Christians appearing to be too "demanding"). After a while, Derek became convicted of the truth of the Gospel and the implications of life without it. Consequently, Derek and a few of his friends who went to Fall Getaway with him, converted to Christianity. Later adventures TBA Personal details Physical appearance Derek is depicted with brown (sometimes blonde) hair and green eyes, with a rather young face. Derek is a large man, standing at 6'5" (1.96 m) tall, weighing about 250 pounds and having a 50-inch chest, much like former military policeman turned drifter Jack Reacher. His six-pack looks like a cobbled street and his muscular chest appears to look like a suit of NFL armor, with large, bulging biceps, a thick neck and hands that resemble dinner plates in size. He blames his muscular appearance on working out at the gym consistently both before, during and after his military career, and he claims that years of working out and sleeping at a particular time consistently led to a rather unique growth spurt. In his youth, he appeared to look like a bulked-up greyhound. As for his muscles, Derek attributes that to years of working out, being athletic through high school and his early years at college. Personality In his adolescent years, Derek showed himself to be smarter than most kids his age. He blames this on the fact that he had been blessed with an "unusually high IQ". He is sometimes more intelligent than his parents. He is also portrayed as a rather moral person. During his Wandering Years/Age of Lawlessness, Derek was a die-hard, rebellious man who wanted to live in the thrill of the moment. He was pretty much a self-centered individual who wanted only fun and enjoyment in life, although after he got a girl pregnant in his teens, he began to rethink his rebellious lifestyle and decided to set moral boundaries for himself. He decided that anything was fair gain, as long as it was not illegal (i.e: it would not get Derek arrested). He also had a sort of "paranoia" about death after hearing about the future judgment God will place on human souls after people physically die. In addition, he had a primal sense of justice and didn't feel any remorse when fighting vigilante wars against criminals. After converting to Christianity, Derek gradually becomes a humble, selfless man that puts the interests of others above himself. Driven by his desire to be as "Christ-like as humanly possible", Derek develops a charitable heart, always looking to the interests of others rather than focusing solely on his own needs. This makes Derek well liked among his peers, and even his enemies acknowledge his good heart, despite their own evil aims to destroy him. Skills and abilities Being a street fighter throughout his high school and being a former special forces operative, Derek is quite proficient in hand-to-hand combat. He attributes this to his military career, as well as his street-fighting training he'd received thanks to his time in street gangs during his youth. The martial arts that he commonly uses in fights are the Keysi Fighting Method (KFM), MMA, and to a certain extent Krav Maga. While fighting, Derek generally goes with the flow of the fight, focusing on finishing it as soon as possible. His modus operandi involves observing the opponent and using that to his advantage by planning his first move and hitting hard and as qucikly as possible, before the opponent can strike first. His main goal is to ensure that the unfortunate opponent that dared to provoke him never makes such a mistake ever again. Derek also has acute deduction skills, mainly while talking to people or making minute observations about his surroundings. This is one of the major reasons why criminal investigators sometimes turn to him to help solve crimes and why his enemies fear him-Derek knows how to stay one step ahead of the criminal(s) he is pursuing. Derek describes himself as a "late sleeper", having the ability to stay awake for long hours and still somehow get enough sleep to fuel a healthy human body. Derek also considers himself a very "unorthodox" dancer, as seen in Revival: Operation Holy Spirit. He is seen making erratic jerking motions with his arms and legs during a dance party on the last official day of Fall Getaway and calling them "dance moves." Habits and religious beliefs Derek does not have any favorite music genres, as he prefers to listen to pretty much anything except country; he thinks country music is "boring" and too "dry" for his liking and prefers the more "aggressive" types of music like heavy metal, pop, techno-pop, death metal, thrash metal, etc. Westbrook was never raised in a church, and prominent members of his family, especially his grandparents and adopted sister Gina Westbrook are atheists. Derek himself was an agnostic prior to becoming a Christian, having had bad experiences with street preachers in the past that left him with a mistrusting view of God and the Gospel of Jesus Christ. However, once he came into contact with CRU and went to Fall Getaway with them, he grew to understand (and later accept) the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Once he became a Christian, Derek soon found himself feeling conflicted about showing the love of Jesus to others and ending a potentially healthy relationship because of the recent revelation that he has become a Christian. This tension often leads him to chicken out of sharing his faith with others. As he grew older and more spiritually mature, however, Derek became a bold person who was never ashamed of his beliefs and would share his faith with others as soon as a chance opened up. Derek has at least two indulgences: exercising and shooting guns. Trivia *Derek is 6'5", the tallest character in the TACITUS series. Due to this, he is sometimes nicknamed "the Tall One" by friends. *He, like many other people in the series, looks deceptively older than he really is (In Revival: Operation Holy Spirit, he is 15, even though he looks like a twenty-five year old). *He was originally supposed to join Delta Force alongside Gerald Moore, but this was changed to the Green Berets. *Derek's tall stature is physically based on (and partially inspired by) ex-military policeman turned drifter Jack Reacher, who is also 6'5", in the novel series by Lee Child. *Derek has stated that in middle school, high school and college freshman years, he has taken MMA (mixed martial arts class), something he is proud of. *He claims to be from a family of "Army men". *Derek is the tallest of the Westbrook children (He is 6'5", his sister Corrinne is 6'2", his other sister Kristen is 6'1.5" and his youngest (also foster) sister Gina is 5'5" (the shortest of the Westbrook children). *His signature martial art is the Keysi Fighting Method, alongside Corrine Westbrook *He wears contacts due to his eyesight failing while in his forties. Consequently, his eyes appear brown, not blue like they really are. *Westbrook became the first person to find out about Operation Blackfish, the notorious CIA project responsible for brainwashing ordinary citizens into becoming merciless killing machines, that Svetlana Karpova and Tamara Sultanovich were part of before finding out about the CIA's crimes and defecting. Gallery New life.png|Derek Westbrook's new life Derek in his forties.png|Derek on vacation in South America Dual-wielded madness.jpg|Derek on a gun rampage Derek Westbrook on a rampage.jpg|Derek at war Derek Westbrook, age 17.jpg|Derek Westbrook, aged 18 19th Special Forces soldiers training.jpg|Derek Westbrook (guy holding the compass) during a training exercise with the Green Berets Category:Former military Category:Tall characters Category:Christian characters Category:Delta Force soldiers Category:Siblings Category:Allies